dia de independencia

September 15 is Independence Day in Honduras...pretty much everything was shut down on Wednesday for the parades, and the students (at least in my house) don't have school til Monday. Since I have been here in Nueva Suyapa, various high school 'marching bands' have been preparing for the festivities. It was not uncommon to hear the drum core practicing at 6am and continuing on and off until 5:30 or 6 pm! Lets just say I am glad that part is over :)

My job is part of MCM, which operates several different ministries in Nueva Suyapa. Our offices are housed in the Christian school that is run by MCM. On Tuesday, the school (El Verbo) had their own independence day parade down 'main street.' We were supposed to gather at 7am...of course, things did not get rolling til about 8:15...and the parade route, which I calculate to be about 1.5 miles uphill--took 2 hours and 30 minutes. It was pretty extensive. Thankfully, one of my coworkers (who I can barely understand) was driving a truck full of preschoolers in their costumes, so I tagged along in the cab :)

Since the office was closed Wednesday for the holiday, my host brother, Axel, offered to go with me to the big parade in Tegucigalpa. Everyone else in the family wanted to sleep in and watch on TV (I wasn't smart enough to know this was a good plan!). We left at 6:45 to get downtown...The parade was not over til 12:30!
It was a lot of walking and standing, but the general mayhem of the parade was entertaining.

The few pictures (above) are from the school parade in Nueva Suyapa...it isn't usually a good idea to go anywhere with valuables, so I left my camera at home for the big parade.

Later in the day, we went to a birthday party for my family's cousin. She was turning six, and all the cousins, from age 2 to 23 were pretty involved in the pinata.

This is a picture of me with with my host mom Lucia, and her youngest son, Axel.



That's about all from here. Have a good weekend, wherever you may be :)